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Gig Report: Recent Notable Stories

08-05-2012, 08:32 PM

I finished the weekend gigs off at a local Moose Club. It's literally 1 minute from my house. It's an easy gig- some of the people can be a little different but whatever. They like the music and I get a good response.

I get there today at about 12:15 and they're in the middle of a meeting so I cant set up. No biggie. I went back home and told the bartender to call me when I can bring my gear in. I go back at 12:45 and manage to set up and play by 15. This Moose Club is a smoking establishment and they take full advantage of this policy. It was pretty disgusting. I quit a year ago and I can be around it. If it was a couple people smoking. I cant believe these people can sit in there for hours at a time with everyone smoking at the exact same time; all 70 of them. I just sat there thinking that I'm done with this venue- I dont need to play there anymore after this gig. No big deal. So I get done and blah blah blah everyone "loves" me and all is well.

I get paid and as Im leaving the parking lot I see the "guy" come running out. I yelled to him and asked if I had forgotten something.

He said, "Yeah- you forgot to fill out your application to become a member."

I laughed and said,"Sorry man it's not going to happen. I've got too much going on with school, family and gigs."

He replied "It's just that some of the members are complaining that we pay you all the time and you're not a member here."

I said, "Dont have me play then. This is my job- you solicited me to play not to pull a Jehovah's Witness pitch on me." Of course I was polite when I said this but I really wanted to rip into him. I'm done with the place.

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Does the guy who came up to us and wants us to sing for 20 minutes at 8:30AM for a REALLY GOOD church breakfast count? I mean, it sounds like a good breakfast and it could lead to other work as I understand it.......

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thats what usually happens in the clubs. if you play in them and never join, they try to make you a member. i play all of them (eagles, elks, moose, vfw, american legion) and they have all asked me to join. i tell them i cant be members with one and not be members with all of them, so i never join. i am the same as the electrician, plumber, etc. i perform a service. do they ask the electrician to join before he can work.

down here in florida, if they allow smoking in the venue, you "Have" to be a member to be in the building. i faught it by telling them they need to card the electrician, plumber, beer delivery, etc. they just didnt understand that i was employed for a service just like them.

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Yeah...I respect the clubs and all but what's the point of joining if I don't share the ideology and have no time all to attend any of the meetings, etc? But the pressure is therenot only when I gig but also when I do bike rides with some of them.

Rod

www.tablefor2.net

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It hasn't rained in months. I played a private party for a huge group of friends last night and it was a disaster. It was cloudy all day and I thought we'd end up inside. The homeowner had really nice tents everywhere so I wasn't worried. I set up and of course it started raining pretty hard. The wind picked up and the rain was encroaching on me a little bit; no worries he had sides for it so I was takin care of.

I played for two hours and it started coming down hard. I realized somehow I was getting wet. I looked down and saw a few drops of water on my IPad and realized the tent was leaking. No big deal- I was just going to pack up and play a few acoustic songs in the house once the truck was loaded. Well of course there was no end in sight with the rain and I had to make the trip from the backyard to the truck and everything got soaked. I'm not paranoid about the Bose **************** because it's durable and I've gotten it wet before, but needless to say I wasn't thrilled about it.

The biggest thing that pissed me off was the reaction from my drunk "friends". I came back to the party completely soaked from head to toe and I was getting the drunk, "you're done already?" At first it didn't bother me but after about two minutes of saying my goodbyes I started getting pissed. I didn't say anything but really???? I'm sitting here like a wet dog, my gear is soaked and you want me to sit down with my $1500 guitar and start playing for you??? Ugh! Anyway the homeowners were cool as hell and tipped me an extra $50.

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I was dreading this night for weeks. The venue/restaurant in in my little hometown and I never played there because it was always known be an elderly crowd. They called me a few weeks earlier and and told me they do "Live Music Wednesdays" in August. I grudgingly took the gig because I'm in no position to be turning down money. I get there and set up under a huge tent. The entire time all these old people just kept shuffling in- everyone getting dropped off at the door while the husband parks the car.

I busted out the "mellow" category on the IPad and prepared to play a night of Simon and Garfunkel, Ricky Nelson and anything else that would normally be appropriate for a snooze fest. I started at 6 and played to about 10 people until about 6:45 when the patio started filling in with 40-50 year olds. By 7:30 the place was taken over by about 30 people that are my little demographic and the gig blew up.

I was supposed to play until 90- at 8:30 the owner asked me to play until 10. I was in marathon mode and hadn't take a break yet. I ended up playing straight through until 9:30 and finally called it. I finished the gig and was met with the greatest reception from the husband and wife owners. They commented on no breaks and asked how much they owed me. I humbly told them to just through me an extra $25 for the 30 minutes. They gave me an extra $50 and we're setting up a regular "same" Saturday a month gig. Believe it or not, it was great that I was able to tell her that I can't do anything until January because all of my dates are filled. It made me feel good. I pretty much left there floored.

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I was dreading this night for weeks. The venue/restaurant in in my little hometown and I never played there because it was always known be an elderly crowd. They called me a few weeks and and told me they do "Live Music Wednesdays" in August. I grudgingly took the gig because I'm in no position to be turning down money. I get there and set up under a huge tent. The entire time all these old people just kept shuffling in- everyone getting dropped off at the door while the husband parks the car.

I busted out the "mellow" category on the IPad and prepared to play a night of Simon and Garfunkel, Ricky Nelson and anything else that would normally be appropriate for a snooze fest. I started at 6 and played to about 10 people until about 6:45 when the patio started filling in with 40-50 year olds. By 7:30 the place was taken over by about 30 people that are my little demographic and the gig blew up.

I was supposed to play until 90- at 8:30 the owner asked me to play until 10. I was in marathon mode and hadn't take a break yet. I ended up playing straight through until 9:30 and finally called it. I got don with the gig and was met with the greatest reception from the husband and wife owners. The commented on no breaks and asked how much they owed me. I humbly told them to just through me an extra $25 for the 30 minutes. They gave me an extra $50 and we're setting up a regular "same" Saturday a month gig. Believe it or not, it was great that I was able to tell her that I can't do anything until January because all of my dates are filled. It made me feel good. I pretty much left there floored.

Right on! Nothing feels better than knocking 'em dead and knowing you did.

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"We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties due to reality fluctuations. The elves are working tirelessly to patch the correct version of reality. Activities here have been temporarily disabled since the fundamentals of mathematics, physics and reason may be incomprehensible during this indeterminate period of instability. Normal service will be restored once we are certain as to what 'normal' is."

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally used up and worn out, shouting '...man, what a ride!'

"The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively" ~Bob Marley

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Elks club story. A sales rep who calls on my business invited me to join the local elks club. He talked up their facility-they own a nice hotel downtown and lease it out, but retain a floor for themselves. They also retain the indoor swimming facility and gym. I've had back problems since I was 21 years old, so i thought the swimming thing would be good. I went through a bizarre initiation ritual that was right out of the flintstones, complete with vows of silience and secret handshakes. A few days later I go to the gym, only to find out that since it was all males, all the old guys swim in the pool naked. Uh Huh. Just a bit weird- I was about 35 years old and these guys were mostly in their 70's. Bolted from the elks.

To keep it gig related, I have a gig booked on 9/1 and managed to throw my back out again last week. I'm freakin dreading it-it's a four hour gig. Pays great, which is why I haven't cancelled, but I'm thinkin about it, or asking my bandmates to sub me out.

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I went through a bizarre initiation ritual that was right out of the flintstones, complete with vows of silience and secret handshakes. A few days later I go to the gym, only to find out that since it was all males, all the old guys swim in the pool naked. Uh Huh. Just a bit weird- I was about 35 years old and these guys were mostly in their 70's. Bolted from the elks.

LOL... awesome story!

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I"ve been playing Mooney's every Thursday night for about a year now. The summer has been great. The owner sponsored an entire softball league so the teams come in and pack the place. I've met a ton of cool people and have picked up a bunch of new fans. The season is pretty much over and everyone is partying their faces off the past few weeks...they've been good gigs.

Last night one of the teams tossed me $50 and asked me if they could sing a few tunes. I took a short break and cleared my stage area. I basically did live karaoke for the last hour and it was a riot. The peope there thought it was fun, I had a good time, and the bar owner loved seeing his customers partying and spending more money. The only "rule" that I had (and kept to myself) was I played a song in between the "karaoke" singers just in case some of the other bar patrons weren't into the pseudo-vocalists.

I doubt I could do this as a complete "live karaoke" type show but it was fun for last night and I made an extra $50.

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I"ve been playing Mooney's every Thursday night for about a year now. The summer has been great. The owner sponsored an entire softball league so the teams come in and pack the place. I've met a ton of cool people and have picked up a bunch of new fans. The season is pretty much over and everyone is partying their faces off the past few weeks...they've been good gigs.

Last night one of the teams tossed me $50 and asked me if they could sing a few tunes. I took a short break and cleared my stage area. I basically did live karaoke for the last hour and it was a riot. The peope there thought it was fun, I had a good time, and the bar owner loved seeing his customers partying and spending more money. The only "rule" that I had (and kept to myself) was I played a song in between the "karaoke" singers just in case some of the other bar patrons weren't into the pseudo-vocalists.

I doubt I could do this as a complete "live karaoke" type show but it was fun for last night and I made an extra $50.

Very cool! Karaoke pro here, you do have one advantage you didn't have the words up on screen, the issue with the words on the screen is that they think EVERY song you play through the speakers has the word on the screen which is false, only the Kar tracks have words with them so i constantly have to make announcements that no you cannot sing to any song you want and no I do not have words on the screen for all the songs on the radio and I never will, if it's not in that handy dandy book I do not and will not have the words EVER. Repeat every hour until gig over

Live band Karaoke I think is a great thing but hard to find around these neck of the woods. They have it 1.5 hours a way but normally on weekdays and it's just too far to drive.

Maybe you could offer it more as a one man show and get the words on a screen?